{"id":2630,"date":"2016-08-22T18:26:49","date_gmt":"2016-08-22T09:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.01.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang-2\/2016\/08\/report\/northkorea-diplomat-escape\/"},"modified":"2021-06-25T18:21:28","modified_gmt":"2021-06-25T09:21:28","slug":"northkorea-diplomat-escape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/2016\/08\/news\/northkorea-diplomat-escape\/","title":{"rendered":"\uff1cInterview with N.Korean People\uff1e Defection of Thae Yong-ho, the minister at NK mission in London, is \u201cnatural\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>

Kim Jong-un and his wife, Ri Sol-ju quoted from Rodong Newspaper on may 2014<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

ASIA PRESS, amid of flow of news from South Korean media, covering the defection of Thae Yong-ho, minister of North\u2019s mission at London, asked opinions from reporting partners in North Korea. The news was sent to them via e-mail in advance. A telephone interview was made with a middle aged female reporter in Northern area of North Korea on August 19.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> What do you think about the defection of the minister, Thae Yong-ho? Why did he go to the South even if he had a good life in foreign country?
\nA:<\/strong> Well\u2026 I don\u2019t know what else he needed\u2026.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> It is said that he was supposed to return to North Korea.
\nA:<\/strong> That is why he decided to escape. If he comes back (to North Korea), there would be no chance to go out again. Who would like to live here? Well, everybody will try to capture him.
\nRelated article: DPRK high-ranking state officials ordered to attend seminar against escaping the country: frequent escapes concern Kim regime<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> What do mean by \u201ccapture?\u201d
\nA:<\/strong> He must be infected by capitalism as he had lived a long life in foreign country. Wouldn\u2019t they tolerate him as he is? He should go through the revolution study process under whatever charge they want to put on him. Who would really like to come back?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> What do you think about the fact that Thae decided to flee for the future of his children?
\nA:<\/strong> It is quite natural. Every parent tries to earn money only for better future of their kids. Do you know how far better enlightened the kids are these days? As Kids here in North watch South Korean movies, they know the South\u2019s situation very well. The parents can\u2019t catch up with the kids\u2019 idea.<\/p>\n

The reporting partner said that minister Thae\u2019s defection is natural. She thinks that the reason for the defection is due to the political oppression by the authority and poor living condition. When we had interviews with North Korean people on occasion of group defection of 13 North Korean employees in China on April, this reporter said without hesitation \u201cif I had been in China, I must have thought of defection too.\u201d
\nRelated article: Kim Jong-un\u2019s Furious Response to the Defection of 13 Restaurant staff<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

North Koreans are losing their confidence in the future of their motherland from their hearts as public sentiments are worsening by persisting poor living condition and oppressive ruling by young leader.<\/p>\n

 <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"rimjingang_banner001\"<\/a>* Editor\u2019s notes on North Korean reporters<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/strong><\/span>ARCHIVE(pdf) >><\/a><\/span>
\n DPRK MAP >><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  ASIA PRESS, amid of flow of news from South Korean media, covering the defection of Thae Yong-ho, minister of Nor\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[7,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2630"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}